This is Six.

stories and snippets from the frontlines of age six.

Child 1 (girl 2013-14)

Reading like crazy…and doing acrobatics even crazier. 201311

Doing great with Mathematics! Thank you, IXL, for helping make review both effective and enjoyable. 20131126

Loving DUPLO-building. 20140102

Child 2 (2016-17)

He and I put up Christmas lights today after taking la Countess to work and his sister to a morning of formal education minus us. Good time with our little big 6.5 year old. His curiosity, questions, conversation…magical and delightful. More dialogs about axolotls and tiger salamanders than I could ever have imagined. 20161129

Child 3 (2022-23)

Began defeating everyone at memory game. Actually beating. Badly. 4/23

A massive explosion of learning - or rather, of interest in and accelerated ability to grasp things - academic, physical, imaginative - quickly and with apparent ease. Maddening and exciting and incredible.

Learning to ride a (pedal) bike independently.
“Daddy didn’t really teach me. He only pushed me and then let go and then I started riding.” 4/23

Mood swings with responses out of proportion to the happening. E.g. someone one stepping on his foot accidentally, ending up in tears and accusations 5/10

Competitive.

Has turned into a ferocious wrestler and impresses both his older siblings - and us - with his strength and tactical moves.

Will sit at dining room table, solo and with his younger brother, for hours at a time, drawing, cutting, and constructing various pieces of art. September

Journaling with older siblings in the evening. Taylor Swift. Listening to Taylor Swift with his sister. September

Explosions of learning continue. Has a strong interest in math and numbers. Started learning place value and adding three-digit numbers on whiteboard today! 10/13

Knock knock jokes. Doing really well with math! Strong in adding/subtracting, skip counting. Started learning multiplication and some fraction concepts. Doesn’t play video games, per se, but can tell he is, or would be, entranced with them. Uses his older brother’s IXL account for math and language arts sometimes. Getting awards or medals is very important to him. 10-19

Made up a new corollary game to hide and seek called Maze Find. Everyone walks around and then tries to find each other. Like in a maze. 10-17